MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The Wesleyan wrestling team will play host to the 2025 NCAA Division III Northeast Regionals on Saturday and Sunday, March 1-2 in the Bacon Field House inside the Freeman Athletic Center. This marks the first time Wesleyan is hosting the NCAA Regionals since 2014.
The Cardinals completed a successful dual match season, going 9-3 overall with two of those three losses coming by four points or less. Wesleyan finished fifth at the New England Wrestling Association (NEWA) Dual Championships in late January and placed Top 5 in all four tournaments during the 2024-25 season, including a first-place finish at the Will Abele Invitational on January 18 hosted by Ursinus.
Wesleyan placed 13
th out of 20 teams at the 2024 NCAA Northeast Regionals with three wrestlers earning All-Region honors.
Hayden Myers '27 placed fourth in his first career Regional, losing in a 4-3 decision to a two-time All-American in the third-place bout at 141 last year.
CJ Shea '25 fell in overtime in the consolation semifinal round but went on to win the fifth-place bout at 157 last season.
Andrew Maiorini '25 was the third Cardinal to finish with All-Region honors as he placed eighth at 165.
Leading the way for the Cardinals this season has been Shea at 165, as the two-time All-Northeast Region wrestler has put together one of the most-impressive seasons in recent memory. He heads into the Regionals ranked No. 7 nationally and No. 2 in the region with a record of 30-1, having gone 25-0 to start the season before his first and only loss of the year which came to Jake Deguire of Springfield. Shea exacted some revenge on Deguire in a dual match the following weekend, as he landed a 4-3 decision victory in Middletown on February 1. On the season, Shea has six wins by pinfall, seven by tech fall, and five by major decision, while he has 86 career wins to his name.
Myers followed up his NEWA Rookie of the Year season in 2023-24 with an even better sophomore year as he sports a 27-4 record heading into Regionals where he looks to improve upon his fourth-place finish at 141 last year. After going 17-6 as a first-year, Myers sits No. 9 nationally in the weight class and No. 3 in the region. He won the 141 title at the Doug Parker Invitational back on November 23 while he took third-place at the RIT Invitational in December. In the 12 dual matches for the Cardinals this season, Myers went 12-0 while he's won nine straight bouts heading into Regionals. He has 11 wins by pinfall in 2024-25 to go along with five tech falls and four major decisions.
In the midst of a breakout senior year,
Aris Dashiell '25 is 26-4 wrestling at 197 this season, easily setting a single-season career-high. Coming into this season with 47 career wins, Dashiell has excelled in the fall semester going 13-1 to start the year with a first-place finish at Doug Parker while he was runner-up at RIT. He currently sits No. 19 nationally in the weight class and No. 4 in the region as Dashiell looks to earn All-Region honors for the first time in his career this weekend. Of Dashiell's 26 wins, three are by pinfall, four by tech fall, and six by major decision while he's racked up 12 decision victories.
Two more Cardinals head into Regionals with 20+ wins on the season while both have earned All-Region honors previously in their careers. Maiorini is 20-9 in his senior year wrestling at 174. He was runner-up at RIT while placing third at Will Abele as he looks to improve on last year's eighth-place showing at Regionals.
Max Martinez '25 is a threat at 133 as he comes in with a mark of 21-10 this season for a single-season career-best win rate of 68%. He placed sixth at the 2023 Northeast Regional as a sophomore and looks to get back to winning ways in the final Regional of his career.
Chris Hong '27 and
Ike Guttentag '26 are both just one win away from reaching the 20-win mark for the first time in their respective careers. Hong enters Regionals with a record of 19-10 at 125. He had a recent string of nine wins in 10 bouts and he comes in ranked No. 30 nationally in the weight class. Guttentag shares the same 19-10 record this season as he wrestles at 149. Guttentag constantly hunts for pins as he has nine wins by pinfall this season, ranking second on the team behind only Myers.
Rounding out the lineup for Wesleyan is
Ronnie Christolin '28 at 157 while
Will Orso '26 will compete at 285. Christolin is 15-7 in his rookie season while he won fifth-place at RIT and was the runner-up at 157 at Will Abele. Orso joined the team at the start of the spring semester and is 9-6 in his first 15 career bouts with seven wins coming via pinfall.
The first round of competition is slated to start at 10 AM on Saturday and will continue throughout the day until around 8:30 PM. Sunday's matches begin at 11 AM and will conclude with the title bouts and third-place bouts starting around 4:30 PM.
